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RHYMES 

OF THE 

POETS 



BY FELIX AGO 



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But this coxcombically mingling 

Of rhymes unrhyming, interjingling, 

For numbers genuinely British 

Is quite too finical and skittish. Byrom. 




^ PHILADELPHIA: 
Published by E. H. Butler & Co. 
1868 



H3 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1867, 

By E. H. Butler & Co., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 



SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS. 



PREFACE 

You praise our sires j but though they wrote with force 
Their rhymes were vicious, and their diction coarse. Gifford. 

DR. JOHNSON, in his Plan of an English Dictionary, 
says that "Some words have tzvo sounds which may be 
" equally admitted, as being equally defensible by authority. 
" Thus great is differently used 

" For Swift and him despised the force of state 
" The sober follies of the wise and great. Pope. 

" As if misfortune made the throne her seat, 

"And none could be unhappy but the great. Roive." 

It is probable, however, that if one of the two words seat 
and great was perverted, it was seat^ which has the dialectic 
and original pronunciation of sate. Gay, who was born in 
Devonshire in 1688, probably used this sound, and read the 
following examples as true rhymes, without perverting great — 

Talks of ambition's tottVing seat, [sate] 
How envy persecutes the great, 

Excuse me then if pride, conceit, 
The manners of the fair and great, 

I grant it does ; and who's so great. 
That has the privilege to cheat ? Gay. 

Doubtless the pleasure is as great 

Of being cheated as to cheat ; Butler. 

never yet 
Was dight a masquing half so neat, Parnell. 



b PREFACE. 

In Old English such rhymes are normal, treat rhyminj 
with great y and estate with aty as in — 

And in what wise I will but shortly trete, 

And of this thynge I touche but the grete. Chaucer. 



So valour, in a low estate, 

Is most admir'd and wonder'd at. 



Butler. 



hard, . . . 
And many times surpris'd him unprepar'd. Darnel. 

Oft with the bearded spear 

They . . . slew the angry bear. Drayton. 

And, like a maggot in a sore. 

Would that which gave it life devour} Butler. 

Either I mistake your shape and making quite. 

Or else you are that shrew'd and knavish spirit &hak. 

Now it is the time of night, . . . 
Every one lets forth his spright, S>hak. 

To set thy praises in as high a key. 

As France, or Spain, or Germany, or they. Drayton. 

Because I breathe not love to every One, . . . 

Nor give each speech a full point of a groan . Sidney. 

It is better to spoil a rhyme than a word. In modern nor- 
mal English therefore, every word which has a definite sound 
and accent in conversation, should retain it in verse ; great 
should never be perverted into greet to the ear, sinned into 
signed, grinned into grind, or wind into wind. 

A few words have two forms in English speech, as said, 
which Pope and Th. Moore rhyme with laid and head ; and 
again, which Shakespeare, Dryden and Th. Moore rhyme 
with plain and then, and Suckling with inn. Towards has 



PREFACE. 7 

two legitimate forms in poetry, the original terminal accent 
having been shifted in speech. Thus Spenser has — 

And ran towardes the far rebounded noyce, . . . 
They, seeing Una, towardes her gan wend, . . . 

The learned Sir William Jones is the purest rhymer known 
to the author, questionable rhymes being so rare in his verse 
as not to attract attention. His Arcadia of 368 lines has 
hxiX. forlorn and horn; gody rode; zuind, behind; mead, reed 
{mead of meadow being med and not meedJ^^ Caissa of 334 
lines, Solima of 104, and Laura of 150, are perfect. The 
Seven Fountains, of 542 lines, has only afford and lord. 
The Palace of Fortune, 506 lines, has only shone — sun, 
and stood — blood. The Enchanted Fruit, 574 lines, has 
wound — ground twice, which some assimilate. The few 
questionable rhymes might have been avoided ; and these 
poems are sufficiently extended to show what can be done in 
the way of legitimate rhyme. 

Versifiers excuse bad rhymes in several ways, as Dr. 
Garth- 
Ill lines, but like ill paintings, are allow'd 
To set off and to recommend the good : 

''' The daughters of the flood have search'd the mead 
For violets pale, and cropp'd the poppy's head, Dryden. 

Here wanton Mincius winds along the meads, 

And shades his happy banks with bending reeds. Dryden. 

But now we see none here, 

Whose silvery feet did tread, 

And, with dishevell'd hair, 

Adorn'd this smoother mead. Herrick. 

Brilliant drops bedeck the mead. 
Cooling breezes shake the reed ; Johmon. 



8 



PREFACE. 



but it is doubtful whether the Doctor would thus have asso- 
ciated allow'' d and goody if he could have readily procured less 
dissonant equivalents. Contrariwise, some authors make effi- 
cient use of what to them are allowable rhymes, and much 
of the spirit of Hudibras would be lost without them. 

Cardan believ'd great states depend 
Upon the tip o' th' Bear's tail's end ; 
That, as she whisk'd it t'wards the Sun, 
Strew'd mighty empires up and down; 
Which others say must needs be false, 
Because your true bears have no tails. Butler. 

These pages are made up chiefly from the following (i 14) 
writers. 

Habington 

Hall, Bp. 

Hawes 

Hemans 

Herrick 

Hill 

Hogg 

Hoole 

Johnson 

Keats 

Keble 

Lamb 

Landon 

Longfellow 

Lowell 

Lyttleton 

Mant 

Marlowe 

Mason 

Mathias 

Milton 

Montgomery 

Moore, Edw. 



Addison 


Cowper 


Akenside 


Crabbe 


Barbauld 


Crashaw 


Barham 


Croswell 


Bayley 


Croxall 


Beattie 


Daniel 


Berkeley 


Darwin 


Blackmore 


Davenant 


Bowles 


Donne 


Broome 


Drayton 


Browne 


Drummond 


Bryant 


Dryden 


Bulwer 


Dyer 


Burns 


Emerson 


Butler 


Falconer 


Byron 


Fawkes 


Campbell 


Garth 


Cary 


Gay 


Chaucer 


Goldsmith 


Churchill 


Gower 


Coleridge 


Grant 


Cotton 


Granville 


Cowley 


Gray 



Moore, Th. 


Smollett 


Motherwell 


Somerville 


Northcote 


South 


Parnell 


Southey 


Percival 


Spenser 


Philips 


Sydney 


Pierpont 


Tennyson 


Pitt 


Thackeray 


Pollok 


Thom 


Pope 


Thomson 


Praed 


Tickell 


Prior 


Tighe 


Proctor 


Waller 


Robert of 


Warner 


Gloucester 


Warreniana 


Rogers 


Warton 


Rowe 


Watts 


Savage 


White, H. K. 


Saxe 


Whittier 


Scott 


Wiffen 


Shakespeare 


Wordsworth 


Shelley 


Wyatt 


Smith 


Voung 



Air or Ear. 

List, list, I hear 
Some far off hallow break the silent aire [ear?] Alilton^ Comus 

With golden pendants in his ears, 
Aloft the silken reins he bears, Faivkes. 

He caught their manners, looks and airs; 
An ass in ev'ry thing but ears ! Gay. 

But he ares — eares (hairs — ears) rhyme in 

In braded tramels, that no looser heares 

Did out of order stray about her daintie eares. Spenser. 

Bard or Bird. 

As Horoscope urg'd farther to be heard, 

He thus was interrupted by a bard [bird.] Garth. 

Young Selby at the fair hall-board 
Carved to his uncle, and that lord, 
And reverently took up the word. TV. Scott. 

Blood. 

Knowing that the South American indjgens (indigens) pro- 
nounce English so badjy as probably to say bloo-d hr blud ; 
Bowles (whom Byron terms "an amiable, well-informed, 
and extremely able man,") takes advantage of the real or sup- 
posable fact as follows — 

In sea-wolf's skin, here Mariantu stood ; 

Gnash'd his white teeth, impatient, and cried " Blood !" 



lO ' BLOOD. 

The sublimity which the use of the single word bl-oo-d 
gives to this passage, produces an effect upon the listener 
which has scarcely a parallel in English verse, unless it is in 
Warreniana, but this is aided by the curse which the speaker 
invokes upon himself — 

< You chilly blast,' she cried, with heart o'er full. 
But he replied, ' No, blast me if I wooll !' 

A New England poet thus "piles on the agony" with a 
wolfish elongation of the word bloo-oo-d, mollified into 
blued — 

Slavery the earth-born Cyclops fellest of the giant brood. 
Sons of brute force and Darkness who have drenched the earth with 
blood ! 

The dart which in his hand now trembling stood, . . , 
Drew with its daring point celestial blood. Tighe. 

And there with glassy gaze she stood 

As ice were in her curdled blood. Byron. 

Beneath his ear the fastened arrow stood, 

And from the wound appear'd the trickling blood. Dryden. 

With mingled roar resounds the wood j 

Their teeth, their claws distil with blood; Gay. 

He pass'd in the heart of that ancient wood, 

The dark shrine stain'd with the victim's blood ; Hemans. 

The strength of some fierce tenant of the wood . . . 
The beast that prowls abroad in search of blood. South. 

Where miscreant hands and rude 
Have stain'd her pure ethereal pall 

With many a martyr's blood. Keble, Prof of Poetry, Oxford. 



BLOOD. II 

Ring out false pride in place and blood . . . 
Ring in the common love of good. Tennyson. 

There all aghast the shivering wretches stood, 

While chill suspense and fear congealed their blood ; Falconer. 

Firm in his loyalty he stood 

And prompt to seal it with his blood. Scott. 

Verbeia then in wild amazement stood 

To see her silver urn distained with blood. Fatvkes. 

Translators are not to be held to the line of propriety with 
as much strictness as those who are at liberty to choose their 
words ; but if this prevents us from censuring, it also pre- 
vents us from praising certain rhymes, as these of Pope, which 
might have shared the honors conceded to Bowles. 

They throng'd so close, the Grecian squadrons stood 

In radiant arms, and thirst for Trojan blood. Iliad 2 :559. 

Next Teuthras' son distain'd the sands with blood, 
Axylus, hospitable, rich, and good. id. 6 :15. 

Fierce as the mountain lions bathed in blood. 

Or foaming boars, the terror of the wood. id. 7 1307. 

In Other cases Pope uses this figure in a manner to remind 
one of boys who are so anxious to behold the effects of their 
fire-works, that they set them off unseasonably, namely, dur- 
ing daylight. Darwin is more judicious — 

Vault o'er the plain, and in the tangled wood, 
Lo ! dead Eliza weltering in her blood! 

And so is Byron — 

They stood the three, as the three hundred stood 
Who dyed Thermopylae with holy blood. 



12 COME OR COMB. 

Even the rats in Hudibras 

Strongly in defence on't stood 

And from the wounded foe drew blood. 

As slow he winds in museful mood [mud ?] 

Near the rush'd marge of Cherwell's flood. Warton. 

His brave contempt of state shall teach the proud 
None but the virtuous are of noble blood : Garth. 

High is his couch 5 the ocean flood . . . 

As round him heaved, while high he stood, Pierponi. 

The tresses of the woods, . . . 

And the full-brimming floods, Percival. 



Break or Breek. 

Of winds and elements on thy head will break, 
And in thy agonising ear the shriek, H. K. Wb 



ite. 



Care or Cur, 

Through fate's fantastics mazes errs . . . 
To combat against real cares. Prior. 

Come or Comb. 

when he comes home; 
For us your yellow ringlets comb, Wordsivorth. 

The judicious Saxe is represented to have made use of an 
expression the **true reading" of which may have been mis- 
understood by the phonographer who took down the address 
in which it occurs. If, as a New Englander, the speaker 
said hum for home, the first version sounds better than the 



COMEORCOMB. I3 

second — which is added under the impression that the ver- 
nacular may have been discarded for the more Southern home. 

golden grains 
Which in the fulness of the year shall cbme 
In bounteous sheaves, to bless my harvest-home ! 

. golden grains 
TVbicb in the fulness of the year shall comb 
From bounteous sbea-ves to bless my bar-vest borne. 

Compare Barry Cornw^all — 

Sound an alarum ! The foe is come ! 

I hear the tramp — the neigh — the hum — 



Bryant- 



Oh, loveliest there the spring days come, 
With blossoms, and birds, and wild bees' hum- 



Herrick — 



With wicker arks did come, 
The richer cowslips home. 



Fawkes — 



Should gammar Gurton leave these helps at home. 
To church with Bible, 'tis in vain to come. 



Th. Moore — 



In peace, by all who comej . 
Some long-lost exile home. 



Scott 



Since to your home 
A destined errant knight I come. 



Land( 



Her temple and her home, . . . 
Whence all her joys must come. 

2 



14 COME OR COMB. 

Pope — 

Thence to revisit your imperial dome 
An old hereditary guest I come. 

And Dryden — 

Myself will search our planted grounds at home 

For downy peaches and the glossy plum. Pastoral 2. 

These drudge the fields abroad ; and those at home 

Lay deep foundations for the laboured comb, 

With dew, narcissus-leaves, and clammy gum. Georg. 4: 234-6. 

As there is no real connexion between a word and its con- 
ventional spelling, I have not varied from the ordinary edi- 
tions, as John Carey, LL.D., has done with Dryden; and va- 
rious critics and printers with Shakespeare, Milton and others, 
because the rhyme indicate? the pronunciation and this the 
word. I may be wrong in giving ** bloo-d" wh.Qn followed 
by "food," where some may prefer ** blud," with a corres- 
ponding twist in ** food ;" but the English prosodists con- 
sulted are silent on the question of a first line termination 
forming an " allowable" rhyme to a subsequent one, instead 
of the reverse. 

Bloomfield was addicted to what is with doubtful propriety 
termed bad spelling, so that his poems, like Shakespeare's, do 
not appear as he wrote them, except perhaps where his edi- 
tor mistook a word for a different one. Hence comb may be 
the proper spelling in the next, where "rosy morn" is equiv- 
alent to Aurora — 

This task had Giles in fields remote from home 
Oft has he wished the rosy morn to come — 



DENYING OR DEN-YIN G. I5 

thus imitated by W. M. Thackeray — 

To a fair mistress and a pleasant home 

Where soft hearts greet us whensoe'er we come. 

[fVhere soft heads greet us ivhensoe^er ive comb.) 

And by the Yankee philosopher, in the Yankee dialect — 

To those who go and those who come 
Good-by, proud world, I'm going home [hum !] 

Deep or Dip. 

So with resistless haste the wounded ship [sheep?] 

Scuds from pursuing waves along the deep : [dip ?J Falconer. 

Denying or Den-ying. 

In the next quatrain, illiterate readers would suppose that 
the adjoined — the alternate — or the whole of the lines, were 
intended to rhyme, but so far from this being the fact, the 
specimen belongs to a poem in which the fourth line rhymes 
with the first, and the third with the second, proving that 
poets are quite too deep for common people. It will be 
observed that dzn-ying is used as a dissyllable, and d-ying as a 
monosyllable, likeyV/?^' ^ox jingle. 

Of transient joys that ask no STING 

From jealous fears, or coy den_y/«^ 

But born beneath love's brooding iving.^ 

And into tenderness soon dYING. Coleridge. 

** Love's brooding wing" turns the little fellow into an old 
hen. 

Some legates sent from the Molossian state 
Were on a peaceful errand come to treat. 
Of these he murders one, he boils the flesh 
And lays the mangled morsels in a dish. 



l6 GRASS OR GRACE. 

Some part he roasts, then serves it up so dress'd 
And bids me welcome to this human feast. Drydcn. 

Surely all ^ol's huffing brood 
Are met to war against the flood, 
Which seem surpris'd, and have not yet 
Had time his levies to complete. Cotton. 

Action and life from ev'ry part are gone 

And e'en her entrails turn to solid stone ; 

Yet still she weeps, and whirl'd by stormy winds, 

Borne through the air her native country finds. 

Where high on Sipylus's shaggy brow 

She stands her own sad monument of woe. Croxall. 

The authors of these monstrosities allow them to stand un- 
der the appellation of "allowable" rhymes, and ordinary 
writers and speakers are so good-natured as to permit their 
language to be thus gibbeted and pilloried, although the pro- 
nunciatorial executioners of English words are unacquainted 
with the philosophic principles which govern variations of 
language. 

Fear or Fare. 

The lookers-on, (for lookers-on there were,) 

Shock'd at the sight, half died away with fear. Eusden. 

Fled or Flay'd. 

But that her ancient spirit is decay'd. 

That sacred wisdom from her bounds is fled. Lyttletcn. 

Grass or Grace. 

So we mistake the future's face 

Eyed through Hope's deluding glass. Campbell. 

Our sports Acestes of the Trojan race [Arab, ras hcad.'\ 
With royal gifts ordain'd, is pleased to grace Dryden. 



JOIN OR JINE. 17 



Hevn or HivN. 

Some sense, and more estate, kind heaven 
To this well lotted peer has given. Prior. 



Hills or Heels. 

The pensive poet thro' the green-wood steals, [stills ?] . . . 
Or climbs the steep ascent of airy hills j [heels ?] Warton. 



Hoard or Herd. 

New milk, and clouted cream, mild cheese and curd. 
With some remaining fruit of last year's hoard, Phillips. 



Join or Jine, 



But wit's like a luxuriant vine : 
Unless to virtue's prop it join, Coivley. 

So mulishly absurd as not to join 

In this with me, save always thee and thine. Gifford. 

See with the fire of youth how art combines 

When Milton's muse with Westall's pencil joins. Mathias. 

This said they all engaged to join 

Their forces in the same design. Hudibras. 

Or where, all dreadful in th' embattled line, 

The hostile ships in flaming combat join. Falconer. 

Good nature and good sense must ever join ; 
To err is human ; to forgive, divine. Pope. 



l8 JOIN OR JINE. 

In praise so just let every voice [vice ?] be joined 
And fill the general chorus of mankind. Pope. 

From cliff to cliff the foaming torrents shine 

While waters, woods, and winds in concert join. Beattie. 

The heart whose impulse stay'd not for the mind 
To freeze to doubt what charity enjoined. Buliver. 

So lines that from their parallel decline, 

More they proceed the more they still disjoin. Garth. 

So when the sun to west was far declin'd 

And both afresh in mortal combat join'd. Dry den. 

Each tender pledge of sacred faith he join'd, 

Each gentler pleasure of th' unspotted mind. Coleridge. 

In after-times as courts refin'd 

Our patriots in the list were join'd. Tickell. 

Me too his power has reached, and bids with thine 
My rustic pipe in pleasing concert join. Lyttleton. 



The passive gods beheld the Greeks defile 

Their temples, and abandon to the spoil. Dry den. 

Heedless of this, but with a pitying sigh . . . 
He shed in haste the balmy drops of joy Tighe. 

orient skies ! 
Riches denied, thy boon was purer joys. Burns. 

To me in vain, on earth's prolific soil. 

With summer crown'd the Elysian valleys smile. Falconer. 

Of hot ambition, irreligion's ice, 

Zeal's agues, and hydropic avarice, Donne. 



LOOV, LOAVE OR LUV. 

As in some old cathedral's glimmering aisle [oil ?] 
The dusty monuments from light recoil * Byron. 

Loin or Line. 

Conjunction, preposition, adverb join 

To stamp new vigour on the nervous line : Churchill. 



Loov, LoAVE or Luv. 

Rare artisan, whose pencil moves 

Not our delights alone, but loves ! Waller. 

On Leven's banks, while free to rove, 
And tune the rural pipe to love; Smollett. 

love, . . . 
Far in the nameless mountain cove. Keble. 

where'er they move, 
From hopes fulfiU'd and mutual love. Keblc. 

Through tracts aloft on daring pinions rove. 

Where'er by duty borne, or led by love .... 

Yet all shall read and all the page approve 

When public spirit meets with public love. Purs, of Lit. 

Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove : 

They love indeed, who quake to say they love. Sir Ph. Sydney. 

For a gate of five bars will certainly prove 

An effectual bar to my being in love. T. H. Bayley. 

But, as from string to string I move. 

My lute will only sound to love. Philips. 



* Their resile must be owing to their resilience. 



20 LOOV, LOAVE OR LUV. 

The bird, as if my questions did her move, 

With trembling wings sigh'd forth, I love, I love Drummonc 

Oh, then, how sweet to move . . . 

Led by light from eyes we love. Th. Moore. 

If these delights thy mind may move, 

Then live with me, and be my love. Marloive. 

The reeds scarce rustle, nor the aspens move, 

And all the feathered folks forbear their lays of love. Garth. 

Unborn to cherish, sneakingly approves : 

And wants the soul to spread the worth he loves. Hill. 

her bondage prove 
The fetters of a dream, opposed to love. fVordsivorth. 

Oh, mornin' life ! oh, mornin' luve. Aiothcrtvcll. 

Then hastens onward to the pensive grove, 
The silent mansion of disastrous love. Garth. 

Near the chequer'd, lonely grove, 

Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love ! yohnson. 

When, sleeping in the grove, 

He dreamed not of her love. Longfelloiv. 

But fairer is the smile of one we love, . . . 

And sweeter than the music of the grove, Southey. 

Then just the hot and stony beach above. 

Light twinkling streams in bright confusion move. Crabbe. 

Or crawls beside the coral grove. 
And hears the ocean roll above ; Gay, 

The lime-leaf waves not in the grove, , . . 

The birds have ceased their songs of love, Hemans. 



21 



Morn or Mourn. 

I have worn, . . . 
Joyed at the opening splendour of the morn, Southey. 

One or Won. 

There was one 
Whom she lov'd in days now gone. Landon. 

If song be past, and hope undone 

It is thy work, thou faithless one, Landon. 



Pant or Paint. 

When in the sultry glebe I faint. 

Or on the thirsty mountain pant, Addison. 



Rome, Room or Rum. 

For Eleuthere a god man was the Pope of Rome, 
Thorw warn first christene men into Englond com. 

Robert of Gloucester. 

What can our travellers bring home, 
That is not to be learnt at Rome ? Butler. 

That durst upon a truth give doom, 

He knew less than the Pope of Rome. Butler. 

And from a scavenger did come 

To be a mighty prince of Rome. Butler. 

Thus when we view some well-proportioned dome, 

The world's just wonder, and e'en thine oh Rome. F'pe. 

From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom. 
And the same age saw learning fall, and Rome. Bope. 



22 ROAM, ROOM OR RUM. 

Time has but touched, not sealed in gloom 
The turrets of almighty Rome. TVijfen. 

But not to Greece — but not to Rome 

These spells alone belong, 
Each sod, each wave was glory's home 

Where honour spurned at wrong. Wiffcn. 

Thus murmuring to himself: wilt thou to Rome 
Base as thou art, and seek thy lazy home? Roive. 

Sighs o'er each broken urn and yawning tomb, 

And mourns the fall of Liberty and Rome. Da'-ivin. 

These thoughts are for the state, enough of Rome 
Her gallic altars, and approaching doom, [dome !] . . . 

Yea, sweet it is to them, afar to roam . . . 

And to the mother land of Christendom Bp. Alant. 

But if from themes so grave you never roam, 

Ask at St. Paul's is Prettyman at home, Alathias^ Purs, of Lit. 

What gorgeous trophies crown his youthful bloom. 
The spoils august of Athens and of Rome ! Grant. 

There the dread phalanx of Reformers come. 

Sworn foes to wit, as Carthage was to Rome : [rum!] Garth. 

And threatened them all with the judgment to c8me 
Of a wandering star's first impressions of Rbme. Loivell. 

As Hannibal did to the altars come, 
Swore by his sire a mortal foe to Rome; 

come 
Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome, Dryden. 



SHINE OR SHIN. 2^ 

Room or Rum, or Roam. 

Troops of right-honourable porters come, 

And garter'd small-coal merchants crowd tlie room. Pitt. 

Besides as exiles ever from your homes, . . . 
Contending, thrusting, shuffling for your rooms" 
Of ease or honour, Daniel, b. 1562. 

Descend their dusky roomes j* . . . 
Adiorn'd to after- domes. Warner. 

Shares or Shears. 

A conventicle flesh'd his greener years. 

And his full age the righteous rancour shares [shears ?] Garth. 

'Tis with concern, my friends ! I meet you here ; 

No grievance you can know but I must share [sheer ?] Garth. 

A sigil in his hand the gipsy bears, 

In th' other a prophetic sieve and sheers. Garth. 

Shine or Shin. 

The following stanza, taken from a little American Sun- 
day-school book, is descriptive of the sun, and displays the 
genius of the poet. Knowing that we may take suitable 
words from foreign languages, he virtually prefers the French 
est to the English east. Hudibras could prove 

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice 
And rooks committee-men and trustees — 

and as the revising committee might object to the profane 

* True rhymes. 



24 SHINE OR SHIN. 

word to shirty the poet hides it under the externals of shine, 
shrewdly guessing that the occasional stolidity of committee- 
men would prevent them from perceiving that the allusion to 
a race, and the collateral facts that the runner * never tires 
nor stops to rest, clearly represent the Old Sol as shinning it 
round the world. 

When from the chambers of the E*ST 
His morning race beGINS, 
He never tires nor stops to REST 
But round the world he SHINES. 

In old English rest and est formed a true rhyme — 

And at the laste, when Phebus in the west . . . 

When cleare Dyana in the fayre southest Haivesy 1 5 Cent. 

Abate thy houres, shine comfort from the East, . . . 
From these that my poore companie detest 5 Sbak. 

So age a mature mellowness doth set 

On the green promises of youthful heat. Denham, b. 1615. 

According to another Sunday-school specimen — 

It is a sin 
To steal a pin, 
Much more to steal 
A greater thing — 

(as a nutmeg grater), the rhyme of which did not satisfy the 
uncorrupted ear of the pupils, who accordingly improved it 
somewhat thus — 

It is a sin It is a sin 

To steal a pin, To steal a pin, 

A nutmeg grate 'r It is a greater 

Sweet potater — To steal a 'tater — 



TOIL OR TILE. 25 

It is a venial sin 
To steal a menial pin 
or. It is a sin more mortal 

To steal a snappin' tortle — 

'tater being poetic for potato. The emendations are worthy 
of being placed beside 

*' The mighty king Senacherib 
** On every man could crack a rib 
" Excepting king Jehosaphat 
" He could not his he was so fat." 



Sword or Sward, 

warlike lords 
Lay mail'd in armour, girt in ireful swords. Drayton. 

Toil or Tile. 

We cannot tell whether the tile referred in the next is the 
square-topt university cap, thus named (see Hogarth's print of 
the Lecture,) or that part of the roof which the rays of the 
sun first strike — 

On all thy hours security shall smile 

And bless thine evening walk and morning toil. Dr. yobnson. 

Use every art of words and winning smiles 

To allure the leader Godfrey to thy toils : Hoole. 

And ancient faith that knows no guile, 
And industry imbrown'd with toil. Smollett. 

O'er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles ; 

The healthy slumber, earn'd by sportive toils. Byron. 

Meaning such tiles as are used in pitching quoits.^ 
3 



26 TONE, TOON OR TOWN. 



Tone, Toon or Town. 

If an English lexicographer does not know what a town is 
called, instead of asking his washerwoman or his bootblack, 
he consults some poet who is interested in deceiving him ; 
and if two poets do not agree, he imagines that the one who 
writes the best poetry must pronounce the best, and would 
therefore be likely to prefer Dryden to Gay — 

The female senate was assembled soon 

With all the mob of women of the town. Dryden. 

You who the sweets of rural life have known 

Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town [ton ?] Gay. 

For me ? I've less romance, I own, 

Since first my pity shock'd the town ; L. T. Berguer.^ 

Trifles in Verse, Edinb. 1817. 

The spreading branches made a goodly show, 

And full of opening blooms was every bough. Dryden. 

'Tis storm 5 and, hid in mist from hour to hour. 

All day the floods a deepening murmur pour 5 Wordiivorth. 

On the luxurious lap of Flora thrown 

On beds of yielding vegetable down. Purs, of Lit. 

With songs the jovial hinds return from plow ; 

And unyok'd heifers, loitering homeward, low. Philips. 

Since to your uncompounded atoms you 
Figures in number infinite allow, Blackmore. 

His auburn locks on either shoulder flow'd 

Which to the funeral of his friend he vow'd. Dryden. 



WAR OR ***. 27 

Tongues or Tongs. 

Our loftiest thoughts and loudest songs ; . . . 
Hosanna from ten thousand tongues. Watts. 

Tossed or Toast. 

Till, in a fated hour, on Thraci^'s coast 

She saw her lover's lifeless body tossed [toast ?] Falconer. 

On a stern and rock-bound coast ; 
Their giant branches tossed j Hemans. 

War or ***. 

Then marked they, dashing broad and far, 
The broken billows of the war, Scott. 

Like a glory from afar. 

First shall head the flock of war ! fVordsivorth. 

Our isle enjoys, by your successful care. 

The pomp of peace amidst the woes of war. Garth. 

The foes are friends, in social league they dare 
On Britain to "let slip the dogs of war." Mason. 

I grant, that, men continuing what they are. 

Fierce, avaricious, proud, there must be war. Coivper. 

Hoarse barks the wolf, the vulture screams from far 
The angel Pity shuns the walks of war. Darivin. 

Wheel a wide circle, form in hollow square. 

And now they front, and now they fly the war. Darivin. 

Of all the trophies gather'd from the war 

What shall return } The conqueror's broken car ! [cor !] Byron. 

From which a bloody pennant stretched afar 
Its comet tail denouncing ample war. Falconer. 



28 WEIGHT OR WIGHT. 

There the Norman sails afar 

Catch the winds and join the war. Gray. 

He felt the influence of malignant star 

And waged with Fortune an eternal war. Beattie. 

A fairer than Venus prepares 

To encounter a greater than Mars. Granville. 

Ah ! what avails it, that, from slavery far [fair ?] 
I draw the breath of life in English air ; Johnson. 

For Jove the heart alone regards ; 

He punishes what man rewards. Gay. 

Calm is my soul nor apt to rise in arms 

Except when fast approaching danger warns. Goldsmith. 



Weight or Wight. 

My feet, through wine unfaithful to their weight, 
Betray'd me tumbling from a towery height, Pope. 

Deep rolling from the watery volume's height 

The tortur'd sides seem bursting from their weight. Falconer. 

The turning of weight into wighty and receipt into recite, 
would justify the perversion of neither into nighther, as used 
by half-educated Hibernian waiters, in contradistinction to 
the illiterate, whose nayther is less objectionable. Those 
who are imperfectly acquainted with English, fancy that the 
language should be controlled by the conventionalities oi spell- 
ing ; whereas, one word cannot be pronounced according to 
the spelling of another word ; nor can the French spelling of 
colonel and lieutenant exclude the r andy from the English 
words, as some unmilitary Americans suppose. 



WORD OR WARD. 2() 



Wind or Twist. 

Whiles his false broker lieth in the wind, 

And for a present chapman is assigned, Bp. Hall. 

You limeless sands, loose driving with the wind, 
In future cauldrons useful texture find, Sa'vage. 

With devious steps, now in, now out, doth wind, 
Flies what he seeks, and meets what he declin'd, 
Lost in the errour of ambiguous ways. Sherburn. 



Wood or Wud. 

Far beyond the Atlantic floods, . . . 

Realms of mountains, dark with woods, J. Mcntgomery. 

While stray'd my eyes o'er Towy's flood 
Over mead and over wood. Dyer. 

Where faire Feronia honour'd in the woods, 

And all the deities that haunt the floods, Broivne. 

Why was not I a liver in the woods, 

Or citizen of Thetis' crystal floods. Drummond. 

One rock amid the weltering floods, . . . 
One changeless pine in fading woods j Keble. 



Word or Ward. 

I only wake the softest chord [curd.?] 

One low, one love-touched whispering word, [ward .?] Landon. 

s* 



30 DIALECTS. 



Dialects. 

In imitation of the Greeks, some of the poets vary their 
verses by the use of dialectic forms, as Scotch — 

As still was her look, and as still was her ee, 

As the stillness that lay on the emerant sea, Jamez Hogg. 

The good light of morning is sweet to the E'E 

But ghost gathering midnight, thou'rt dearer to me. Wm. Tbom. 

Set are his teeth, his fading EyE 
Is sternly fixed on vacancy. Scott. 

Hath stopped, and fixed its large full EyE 

Upon the lady Emily; [Emma Lee? Lye?] Wordsivortb. 

Furious he drove and upward cast his EyE, 

Where next the queen was placed his Emily. Byron. 

(And after rode the quene and Emilie, Chaucer.) 

Upon his hurt she looks so stedfastly, . . . 

And then she reprehends her mangling EyE, Sbakesp. 

And smalle foules maken melodic 

That slepen alle night with open eye. Chaucer. 

Picturing all the rustic's joy 

When boundless plenty greets his eye, Kirke White. 

Oft had he stolen a glance to spy 

How Roderic brook'd his minstrelsY. Scott. 

Poetic visions charm my closing eye .... 

Shift to wild notes of sweetest minstrelsY. Rogers. 

key 
To golden palaces, strange minstrelsY, Keats. 



DIALECTS. 



31 



In these English forms it is difficult for the audience to de- 
termine whether minstrePs eye or minstrel sigh is meant ; 
but as the English grammar example of false syntax — " Dis- 
appointment sink the heart of man, but the renewal of hope 
brings consolation" — is turned into good grammar when writ- 
ten — "Disappointment/ ink the heart of man," i. e., render 
it black and gloomy, the critical reader will perceive min- 
strel'' s eye to be as correct z^ jealous eye in — 

As stung his heart, and made his marrow fry 
With burning rage, and frantic jealousy. Pope. 

The crystal tear drop fills mine e'e [my knee ?] Charles Doyne Sillery^ Esq.^ 

who may have seen the synovia which lubricates the knee of 
a calf. In the next, the Scotch word coom is used with more 
knowledge than effect — 

The basset table spread, the tallier come ; 

Why stays Smilinda in the dressing room ? Pope. 

I marked with secret joy the opening bloom 

Of virtue prescient of the fruits to come. Gifford. 

And these words shall then become 
Like oppressions thundered doom. Shelley. 
(Thundered dumb } or thunderdom ?) 

Gay prefers the Irish dialect (Old English) — 

Should you the wide encircling net display 

And in its spacious arch enclose the sea . . . 

It would extend the growing theme too long, 

And tire the reader with the watery song. Rural Sports. 

And sentenc'd to retain my nature, 

Transform'd me to this crawling creature 5 Fable IL 



32 DIALECTS. 

He lost his friends, his practice fail'd; 

Truth should not be always reveal'd j Fable XVIII. 

My name is Vanity, I sway 

The utmost islands of the sea; Moore^ Fables. 

Whose rapid wings thy flight convey, 
Through air, and over earth and sea ; Warton. 

A moment snatched the shining form away. 
And all was covered with the curling sea. Fope. 

Behind him far upon the purple waves [weaves ?] 

The waters waft it, and the nymph receives, [re-saves ?] Fope. 

The salmons, and some more as well as they. 

Now love the Freshets, and then love the sea. Browne. 

The stoutest vessel to the storm gave way. 

And suck'd through loosen'd planks the rushing sea. Dryden. 

I am monarch of all I survey, . . . 

From the centre, all round to the sea ; Coivper. 

Since by no acts I therefore can defeat 
The happy enterprises of the great, Garth. 

Unthinking fowl! 
While those blind flatterers swell thy soul Northcote. 

Nor the soliloquy of the hermit owl. 
Exhaling all the solitary soul. Byron. 

A feeling that upbraids the heart 

With happiness beyond desert. Coleridge. 

The rising morning can 't assure , . . 

For death stands ready at the door, Watts. 

Or onward where the rude Carinthian boor 

Against the houseless stranger shuts the door. Goldsmith. 



DIALECTS. 33 



He comes to Lane, finds garret shut, 
Then, not with knuckle, but with foot 
He rudely thrusts. Da'venant. 

Yet you have no pretence to strut 

With such a voice and such a foot. Northcote. 

This night his treasured heaps he means to steal. 
And what a fund of charity would fail. Pamell. 



Parnell likes a French rhyme — 

The graces stand in sight, a satire train, 

Peeps o'er their heads, and laughs behind the scene — 

So does Dryden — 

Nor silence is within, nor voice express, 
But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease. 

And Pope — 

Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere. 
Since all things lost on earth are treasured there. 

And Addison — 

And sometimes casts his eye upon the E*ST 
And sometimes looks on the forbidden wEST. 

Habington uses English, French, and German in one trip- 
let— 

No north wind shall inFEST 

But the soft spirit of the E^ST 

Our scent with perfumed banquet FE^ST. 



34 DIALECTS. 

Mainwaring judiciously uses the Welsh word cam (crooked) 
in connection with raTTi's horns, and also the Persian word 
for a cow — 

Jove (so she sung) was changed into a RAM, 
From whence the horns of Lybian Ammon CAM* j 
Bacchus a goatj Apollo was a CRO^^j 
Phoebe a cat 5 the wife of Jove a CO**', 
Whose hue was whiter than the falling SNC, 

In the next, the German and old English words Feld and 
Fest (both used by Chaucer*; are introduced in English or- 
thography for the benefit of the unlearned — 

Who now laments but Palamon compelled 

No more to try the fortune of the F'ELD. Dry den. 

, it rolls around the F'ELD; 
So rolled the float, and so its texture held : [healed?] Pope. 

Picus who once th' Ausonian sceptre held, 

Could rein the steed, and fit him for the field. Garth. 

And now the victims drest, 
They draw, divide, and celebrate the FE*ST. Pope. 

For her the artist shuns the fuming FE*ST, 

The midnight roar, the Bacchanalian guest. Mason. 

Honors the princely chiefs, rewards the rest. 

And holds for thrice three days a royal FE^ST. Dry den. 

This is properly succeeded by a fast — 

* The battaille in the feld betwixt hem twaine , . . 
Why schuld I sowen draf out of my FEST 
When I may sowe whete, if that me LEST ? Chaucer. 

He came, where he this hoste behelde, 
And that was in a largo felde. Goiver. 



DIALECTS. 

Enjoyment past, 
The savage hunger'd for a F*AST} Edzu. Moore. 



35 



We find French used in Shakespeare's epitaph, in which 
the pronunciation and spelling (plast) of the day are correct — 

STAY PASSENGER, WHY GOEST THOV SO FAST 

READ IF THOV CANST WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST 

Ben Jonson uses a similar rhyme correctly — 

Before this work? where envy hath not cast 
A trench against it, nor a battry plac'd. 

The royal judge, on his tribunal plac'd 

Who had beheld the fight from first to last. Dryden. 

Nor is Hebrew neglected — 

Attend, unconquer'd maid ! accord my vows, 

Bid the great hear, and pitying bear my woes. Pope. 

The face of things is changed, and Athens now 

That laugFd so late, becomes the scene of luoe. Byron. 

If WOW is used for hozvl, as an antithesis to laugh, the cu- 
rious reader will consult the affinities of the Greek, 6a6'^io. 
(bowzdo), not forgetting the scholium in Warreniana — 

She bark'th her chorus of bow wow WOW 

Boiv for the quarters and ivoiv for the HOUr — 

(Four for the quarters and twelve for the hour. — Coleridge.) 

nor overlook the fact that the effect of bowwow wow is due 
to a (Canis) molossus. Wenzel (Ueber die Sprache der 
Thiere) gives some examples which show that German dogs 
do not bark English — 

" Pafpafknurpafpaf, knur, knur, paf, pif." 



36 



DIALECTS. 



So the frogs in Rollenhagen's Froschmaseler (1672) speak 
a somewhat different language from those of Aristophanes 
and Homer — 

RiefFen das hat gethan gar gecksch — 

Koachs, Wrecke, Vky, Kekechs: 
Ryller, Tryller, Kulo, Tulunck ! 

Das beklaget sich alt und junck. 

English being tolerably adapted to the use of the profane, 
we need not wonder that to the frogs of Vesperia should be 
attributed a dialect like 

Zounds ! blQd-n-cuns ! Rum ! More rQm ! 
Pete! knee deep! Pete! knee deep! 

It will be observed that the big ones use the base molossus, 
and the little ones the treble tribrach. 

Barham, a genial and witty writer, but who, unfortunately, 
must have learnt his Greek in England, says in his Ingoldsby 
Legends 

That an ancient Welsh poet one Pyndar ap Tudor 
"Was right in proclaiming **Ariston men U-dor!" 

which shows that he never learnt to spell " the languages," 
and pronounce the Welsh j and u. His Udor should have 
been (a Greek) hydor, with which (a French) Tudor would 
rhyme. But his pronunciation is as bad as his spelling, turn- 
ing vooq (mind) into '^aoq, a ship. 

His Pa's wedded spouse 

She questions his vow?. Barham, 

Thine is the genuine head of many a house [hoos? hO-ws?] 
And much divinity without a Nswf ! Pope. 

Our bard pursued his old A. B. C. 

In fullest sense his name 'ETTun. Coleridge. 



DIALECTS. 37 

"His name," i. e., its initials S. T. C !, if Greek may be 
thus perverted. 

Until they say [thay] " He calleth thee" 

" Qdpaei lyeipai c^uveI ce !" — Longfelloiv. 

Tell be, by Buse, cad thh g! be Greek ? 

The authors of such attempts at jingle deserve a vovq of a 
different kind, somewhat like that with which infected dis- 
tricts are enclosed, and known by the name of 




CORDON SANITAIRE. 



These are as bad as rhyming noose or no-ws (with short 
in note') and houses instead of house and vao'z. Swift un- 
derstood the pronunciation of Chinese — 

But let me now awhile survey 
Our madam o'er her evening tea — 

also Pope 

Here thou great Anna whom three realms obey, 
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea — 

better than Barham 

I hardly need say 
The Hong merchants had not yet invented How Qua — 

4 



3^ DIALECTS. 

who is equally unfortunate with Latin — 

But still on these words of the Bard kept his fix'd eye 

INGRATUM SI DIXERIS, OMNIA DIXTI* 

but he does understand the accent of Wyandot, contrary to 
the practice of certain literary snobs who fancy that there is 
such a word as Niagara. The Wyandot word, in Latin or 
German orthography, (with the Hebrew or Arabic hamza,) 
is Gjri'.Nara, the r smooth, the three vowels short (as in carty) 
with the first accented. In the English adaptation, the illit- 
erate read the first syllable nigh instead of knee. 

And the rain came down in such sheets as would stagger a 
Bird for a simile short of Niagara. Bar ham 

which is imitative of Thorn. Moore's 

Were taking instead of rope pistol or dagger a 
Desperate dash down the falls of Niagara — 

The Knickerbocker Magazine (April, 1855, p. 332,) per- 
verts the pronunciation of Ladoga, the first syllable of which 
is accented by the Russians, and of Ukrain — 

from gray Ladoga to green Ukraine 
And other parts of the Russian domain ! 

Byron seems to prefer Spine to Spain — 

How kindly would he send the mild Ukraine, 

With all her pleasant pulks to lecture Spain [spine?] Age of Bronze. 

* That the Britons did not speak this jargon formerly is evident from a 
passage in Hermolaeus, written in 1492, and printed in 1534 — 

ABUNDAT INSULA BRITANIA HOC GENERE : IN HODIERNUMQUE DIEM 
BARBARI ILL! UOCE ROMANA UTUNTUR 



DIALECTS. 39 

Churchill is equally severe on French — 

Next came the treasurer of either house 
One with full purse, t'other with not a soui. 

C, A. P., author of an excellent *' Pastoral Ballad after the 
manner of Shenstone" (in the New York Spirit of the 
Times,) seems not to know that the orthography of Shang- 
hae is Portuguese, and that it consequently rhymes with high, 
like the Latin diphthong jE, so that 

Ye shepherds so cheerful and gay 
Say, have you observed a Shanghai ? 

might have been rendered 

You shepherds so cheerful and spry 
Say, have you observed a Shanghae? 

Professor Longfellow has laid himself out in Chippeway, 
with a hero whose name, Hiawatha, a Chippeway cannot 
pronounce, and a versification not adapud to the language. 

Heard ] 

With 1 

^ \ the squirrel adjidaumo . . 

Spring J 

where mo (nasalised like French mon) is the accented syllable, 
whilst dau {au for Italian a) is unaccented. The nasal o oc- 
curs in the two following, where the final (French e) is dis- 
tinctly accented. 

And he said to the kenozha [long-snouted ] 
To the pike the maskinozha [big long-snouted ] 

Not having seen a Chippeway since the publication of Hi- 
awatha, whether the effect of these perversions has been to 



40 DIALECTS. 

produce rage or laughter, cannot be stated here. But it may 
be presumed similar to the effect upon a Roman ear which a 
modern Professor of ** Latin" would produce in reading 

ARMA viRUMQUE CANo^ (instead of ca''no) 

in spite of Prisc^ian's assertion that no Latin word h?,s the 
accent final. 



If mineralogists and geologists are allowed to talk of the 
crust of the earth, and to have their stilbite, apatite, table- 
spar, mineral-tallow, pudding-stone, asparagus-stone, milk- 
quartz, oolite, berg-mehl, resinite, and pisolite, why should 
not as great a poet as Pope be allowed to call a crag or decliv- 
ity a press o'* pies ? 

Which out of nature's common order rise 
The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice. 

Byron prefers a can o'' pie — 

Wide it was and high, 
And show'd a self-born Gothic canopy. 

Thackeray is too keen an observer to write 2. flat awry — 

Stranger ! I never wrote a flattery, 
Nor signed a page that registered a lie. 

Somerville had a pill awry — 

No perjur'd villain nail'd on high 
And pelted in the pillory, 

and Praed would hold a rose awry — 

He gazed on the river that gurgled bv . . . 
He clasped his gilded rosary. 



RHYME. 41 

Odours, when sweet violets die, 
Live within the memory. Shelley. 

Scott's hero stained the floor with brandy — 

Full in the midst, his Cross of Red 

Triumphant Michael brandished . . . 

And threw on the pavement a bloody stain. 

Croswell allows a choice between festive all^ and festive 
hall— 

And from the temple wall 

Wave verdure o'er the joyful throngs 

That crowd his festival, 

Emerson's faith was early a rope — (see p. 37.) 

The sun set, but set not his hope : 
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up; 

Byron's angels prefer pacing to flying — 

Poland ! o'er which the avenging angel passM 
But left thee as he found thee, still a waste. 

Softens Deucalion's flinty race. 

And tunes the warring world to peace. Edto. JUfoore, Fab, XVI. 

And now two nights and now two days were past [paste] 
Since wide he wander'd on the watery waste. Pope. 

Rhyme. 

The next specimens of words ** allowed" to rhyme are of 
such a nature as to form blank verse, if read as they ought to 
be, with the vulgar pronunciation, 

Matthew met Richard, when or where 
From story is not mighty clear ; 

4* 



42 RHYME. 

Of many knotty points they spoke, 
And pro and con by turns they took, 
Rats half the manuscript have eat : 
Dire hunger ! which we still regret. 
O ! may they ne'er again digest 
The horrors of so sad a feast. Prior. 

And India's woods return their just complaint. 
Their brood decayed, and want of elephant. Prior. 

How sleek's the skin ! how speck'd the ermine ! 
Sure never creature was so charming! Gay. 

Like him I draw from gen'ral nature ; 
Is 't I or you then fix the satire } Gay. 

Had armed with spirit, wit, and satire 5 

And tipped her arrows with good nature. Gray. 

May yet ere noon-tide meet his death. 

And lie dismember'd on the heath. Beattie, 

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch . . . 
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech. Gray. 

Time, if we choose ill-chosen stone. 

Soon brings a well-built palace down. Waller. 

Salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow, 

Nor will be tam'd and mended by the plough. Dry den. 

Neksheb is our own ! 
'Tis done — the battlements come crashing down. Th. Moore. 

When round thy raven brow 
Heav'ns lucent roses glow. Coleridge. 

Venus, all-bounteous queen ! whose genial power 
Diffuses beauty in unbounded store. Beattie. 



RHYME. 43 

Love that 's forced is harsh and sour : . . . 
To persist disgusts the more. Barbauld. 

As thy waves against them dash . . . 
Swallowed, now it helps to wash. Ch Lamb. 

Now cease my lute, this is the last 
Labour that thou and I shall wast, Wyatt. 

Lines not compos'd as heretofore in haste, 

Polish'd like marble, shall like marble last. Waller. 

Thus when the swain within a hollow rock. 
Invades the bees with suffocating smoke. Dry den. 

O hear our pray'r, O hither come, 
From thy lamented Shakespeare's tomb, 
On which thou lov'st to sit at eve. 
Musing o'er thy darling's grave. Warton. 

Better to hunt in fields for health unbought 

Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. Dryden. 

Just to thy fame he gives thy genuine thought, 

So TuUy published what Lucretius wrote, [wrought .H B'-oome. 

Barren of every glorious theme, . . . 
Producing subjects worthy fame. Bp. Berkeley. 

and only now 
In sorrow draw no dividend with you. Crashaiv. 

As if the place, the cause, the conscience gave 

Bars to the words their forced course should have. Daniel. 

As when his Tritons' trumps do them to battle call 

Within his surging lists to combat with the whale. Drayton. 

Alive, the hand of crooked age had marr'd 

Those lovely features, which cold death hath spar'd. Waller. 

And to love a martyr 

Apollo followed arter. Warreniana. 



44 BLANK VERSE. 

Blank Verse. 

Altho the next examples are given by their authors as blank 
verse, they are just as good rhyme as some of the former. 

Thou knowst that all my fortunes are at sea, 

Neither haue I money, nor commodity Shak., M. of V. 

E'en as the frogs, that of a wat'ry moat 

Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out. Cary^s Dante 

Who builds on less than an immortal base, 

Fond as he seems, condemns his joys to death. Toung, Nt. i. 

To wonder; and too happy to complain! 

Our doom decreed demands a mournful scene Youngs Nt. 7. 

Tho' quite forgotten half your Bible's praise ! 

Important truths, in spite of verse, may please: Toung^ Nt. 7. 

They mortify, they starve, on wealth, fame, power, 

And laugh to scorn the fools that aim at more. Toung, Nt. 9. 

The angel ended, and in Adam's ear 

So charming left his voice, that he awhile 

Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear. 

Then, as new-waked, thus gratefully replied : Milton, P. L. 8, 1-4. 

So sented the grim feature, and upturn'd 

His nostril wide into the merkie air. 

Sagacious of his quarry from so farr. Miltony P. L. 10. 

I must begin with rudiments of art. 

To teach you gamoth in a briefer sort, Sbak. Tarn, Shrew, 3:1. 

And from his horrid hair 
Shakes pestilence and war. Milton. 

His lot importunate in nuptial choice, 

From whence captivity and loss of eyes. Milton. 



BLANK VERSE. 45 

His goddess Nature, wooed, embraced, enjoyed. 

Fell from his arms abhorred ; his passions died. Pollok. 

spread it then 
And let it circulate in every vein. Coivper. 

Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous now, 
Confounded in the dust, adore that pow- 
V And wisdom oft arraign'd. Thomson. 

His near approach the sudden starting tear, 

The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air, Thomson. 

The evening star will twinkle presently — 

The last small bird is silent, and the bee. N. P. Willis. 

The air salubrious of her lofty hills 

The cheering fragrance of her dewy vales. Coivpet . 

His wife, another, not his Eleanor, 

At once his nurse and his interpreter. Rogers. 

Not so the man of philosophic eye. 

And inspect sage : the waving brightness he Thomson. 

goddess of the lyre. 
Which rules the accents of the moving sphere. Akensidt. 

Of time and space and fate's unbroken chain, 

And will's quick impulse} others by the hand Akenside. 

Inapplicable as the last may seem, it is paralleled by Dry- 
den's "allowable" rhyme in — 

This office done she sunk upon the ground 

But what she spoke, recovered from her swoon — "f" 

* In Spenser's time this was proper — 

And cruddy blood enwallowed thay found 

The luckless Marinell lying in deadly swound. F. Q^ 



4-6 PROSE. 

which is not equal to a similar one in Jeems Thackeray's 
"Sonnick sejested by Prince Halbert gratiously killing the 
stags at jack's cobug gothy." 

Some forty Ed of sleak and hantlered deer 
In Cobug (where such hanimals abound) 
Was shot, as by the newspaper I 'ear 
By Halbert, Usband of the British croivnd. 

The reader may also compare rhymes of abroad and Lordy 
gone and horn (which the negro dialect requires) with the 
blank verse ending snores and nose of another poet. 

Spurned not alone in walks abroad 

But in the temples of the Lord, J. G. Wbittier. 

And when the day is gone . . 

Is hollowed out, and the moon dips her horn, Longfelloiv. 

a man who snores, 
Night-capped and wrapt in blankets to the nose. Alex. Smith. 

Prose. 

The following examples were published as prose. The 
first is from the English translation of Fouque's Undine, p. 
9, where the knight and fisherman 

enjoyed their chat as two 
such good men and true 
ever ought to do. 

The note of the cuckoo sounds in his ear 
like the voice of other years. Ha-zlitt. 

The catbird* tunes his cheerful song 

before the break of day, 
hopping from bush to bush,-|- 

after his insect prey. Nuttall^ Ornithology, 1832. 

* often f with great agility 



ALLITERATION. 47 



[And the trees] 



If they sigh 
for brigh- 
ter skie- 
s and for breez- 
es with warm- [Causes, 
er breaths. Prof. Geo. Wihon (M.D., F.R S.E.), Chemical final 

It was so bright It is well to dress 

in his enemies' sight in your best 

that it gave light when you go to press 

like thirty torches. a request. 

King Arthur. Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1858. 

Fondly do we hope, 

fervently do we pray, 

that this mighty scourge of war 

may speedily pass away. Prest, Lincoln^ Mar, 4, 1865. 



Alliteration. 

Alliteration is related to rhyme, and is sometimes used to 
heighten the effect, but belletricians seem to be right in con- 
demning it. The following selections are presented as ex- 
amples. 

Epochs . . . when sufferings and sorrows oi startling severity are 
thickly sown in nearly every destiny, when terrible problems and terrible 
events leave little room for levity or leisure, are the very cradle and 
festival of the lyric muse — Edinb Rev., Jan. 1855, Art IV. 

The rags and remnants of a robe which was a royal one once. R. 
C. Trench^ on the Study of Words. (Superficial and inaccurate.) .... 
matter of more manifold instruction. — Trench, Select Glossary. 

When beechen buds begin to swell Bryant. 



48 ALLITERATION. 

Lure on the broken brigands to their fate. Byron. 

No gift beyond that bitter boon our birth. Byron. 

. . . but the black blast blows hard. Toung^ Nt 8. 

Gibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand. Pope. 

But cull in canisters disastrous flowr's, Garth. 

It is the common cant of criticism to consider, . . . HazHtt. 

Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms, Ten?iyson. 

Wirst du doch noch nicht schamen. Lessing, Nathan der Weise. 

Deep darting to the dark retreat. Thomson. 

dive in dimples deep . , . 
In deep dissimulations darkest night 
Where gay delusion darkens in despair 
Dawning a dimmer day on human sight 
Undampt by doubt, undarken'd by despair. Toung. 

Inquiry into deeds at distance done. Byron. 

And a dry dropsie through his flesh did flow. 
Which by misdiet daily greater grew : Spenser. 

... to dive into the depths of dungeons. Burke. 

Down the deep dale and narrow winding way. 
They foot it featly ranged in ringlets gay, Beattie. 

And drives my dreams, defeated, from the field Tou-ng. 

Wi' her freaks and her ferlies and phantoms of fear, Hogg. 

From furrow'd fields to reap the foodful store. Dryden. 

Flora floating o'er a bed of flowers. Saxe. 

To fabling fancy forceful swell. Charles Lloyd. 

unfortunate in the faults and follies of his forefathers, Scott, 

Waverly 2, ch, 4. 



ALLITERATION. 49 

A wandering, weary, worn, and wretched thing, Podok. 

The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes Szvinhurne. 

And his glance follow'd fast each fluttering fair. Byron. 

Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain. ff^. Scott. 

We felt the full force of our folly. T. N. Talfourd. 

Warst uns bis hieher stecken Stab ; 
Sey's Vater fernerhin. German Hymn. 

And fever's fire was in his eye. TV. Scott. 

And the green grasse that groweth they shall bren, Spenser. 

Full fathom five thy father lies. Shak. 

O hold that heavie hand, Spenser. 

A husky harvest from the grudging ground. Dryden. 

To hurt her hapless rival she proceeds, Garth. 

The hart hath hung hys old head on the pale Surrey. 

.... hear the happy hum of the busy bees. Langstroth, Hive 

and Honey Bee, 1853, p 553, 
O'er stock and rock their race they take. TV. Scott. 
But clothes meet to keep keene cold away, Spenser. 

Kypenihin kyynaswarsin, 

Koprin kuumihin porohin Kalewala, 6 :3i-2, ed. Lonnrot, 1835. 

Leaving his life-blood in that famous field. Rogers. 

With languid limbs in summer's sultry hours, Southey. 

Lo from Lemnos limping lamely, 

Lags the lowly Lord of Fire Rejected Addresses. 

The lobuli of the liver are looser, Leidy on Gasteropoda. 

supreme mastery over the minds of men. TV. C. Bryant. 

5 



50 ALLITERATION. 

much more manifold meaning. R. W. Emerson^ The Poet. 

Amongst the teal and maor-bred mallard drives Drayton. 

send him moping or maudlin to the mad-house. Rev, Belloivs. 

moon-blasted madness. Coleridge. 

moaping melancholic and moon-struck madness. Milton. 

ended their days in moping melancholy or moody madness. 

Ha-zlitty on Swift. 
Taught mid thy massy maze their mystic lore. Warton. 

But knights he now shall never more deface : Spenser. 

Fresh with the nerve the new-born impulse strung. Byron. 

Lorenzo! hear, pause, ponder, and pronounce .... 

We purchase prospects of precarious peace : . . . 

O'er pleasure's pure perpetual, placid stream. Toung. 

Or where ill poets pennyless confer. Garth. 

As pearls upon an Ethiop's arm. Dyer. 

The clouds rise reddening round the dreadful height. Barloiv. 

The soul is on the rackj the rack of rest, Toung. 

The wise soothsayer, seeing so sad sight, Spenser. 

A sable, silent, solemn forest stood. Thomson. 

The cypress saddening by the sacred mosque. Byron. 

To stern sterility can stint the mind. Byron. 

Eve's wants the subtle serpent saw, Gay. 

His steed stood still nor step would move. Joanna Baillie. 

She makes silk purses, broiders stools, . . . 

Paints screens, subscribes to Sunday-schools Praed. 

The sirens will so soften with their song. Chapman, 



ALLITERATION. 5I 

And sink a socket for the shining share. Drydcn. 
Such sounds the Sibyl's sacred ear abuse. Gartb. 
. . . who can satiate sight In such a scene. Toung. 
My senses, soothed, shall sink in soft repose. Toung. 

Thus when Philomela drooping 

Softly seeks her silent mate, 
See the bird of Juno stooping; 

Melody resigns to fate, Sivift, iJT^. 

With short shrill shriek, Collins. 

. . . and shov'd from shore. Garth. 

Turns tenderly to some sweet simpering she. Arthur Brooke, 1818. 

On tomes of other times and tongues to pore. Byron. 

Bid thee to them thy fruitlesse labors wield, Spemer. 

that though this ought to be. TVheivell, Hist. Induct. Sci. i, 75. 

And Vernon's vigilance no slumber takes. Garth. 

But that vain victory hath [!] ruin'd all. Byron. 

For love, of whiche thy wo woxe alwaie more. Chaucer, 

Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness Da-vors^ in Walton. 

What woes await on lawless love. Byron^ Corinth. 

Never a white wing, wetted by the wave, Byron. 

And, as he weaves his web of wiles. G. P. Morris. 

That we were in a world of woe, fV. Wordsivorth. 

Wikewasti wiilletella, 

Waskisissa waljahissa, Kalewala, 7 :437-8, ed. LOnnrott, 1835. 

Waka wanha Wainamonen, Kalewala, 10 :i. See also tagc-i. 



52 FLIGHT OF THE FISHES. 

Da wirst du Herr von angesicht 

Zu angesichte sehen ; 
Wie wohl wird dir bei diesem Licht 

In Ewigkeit geschehen. German Hymn. 

Stimulated to stupidity with excessive excitement. Montgomery, 
It was in freshest flower of youthful years, Spenser. 



THE following stanzas, with the title FLIGHT OF 
THE FISHES, are published here with a view to 
protect them from unauthorised publication, an imperfect 
copy having got abroad. The remainder may appear here- 
after. 



How envious of the rhymer would be Pope 

and others who in rhyming could not cope ; 

who could not entertain a transient hope 

of leaving discords having equal scope 

with Rome an' dome or doom^ or m,op and 7nope — 

preferring cords as bad as soup and soap, 

content with such as these to set a trope 

since Bag of Ehymes they could not get or ope. 

The poets link such sounds asJoi?i, design, 
securing here and there a rhymeless line ; 
and when from word to word they r rudely tost 
delusion freely couples boast with lost, 
remove with grove, or even grove with love 
(as if nought else but lead were found above,) 
care — car, with war, and also wear with star, 
and like perversions truthful rhyme to mar. 



FLIGHT OF THE FISHES. 53 

MNEMOSYNE, 

Weeds choke you, let Ameter* mow 'em * The Reaper. 

and Epilesmonestraf stow 'em f The Oblivious. 

with Epilekythistra'sJ proem ; J The Bombastic. 

then give us thoughts, if you must grow 'em 

to weave your tissues, or to sew 'em ; 

or try some bouts with rhymes, and show 'em, 

to see if Dulot's muse will know 'em 

as fit bouts rimes for a poem. 

ERATO. 

They say that " Some things can be done" * Latin stilus, 
(to quote Sam Patch) " as well as others" as in stiletto 

and if you ca' nt take this advice not orijAof 

I hope at least you 1 take my mother's ; as in peristyle. 

for tho your lines may fish entice 
they cannot tease my poet brothers, 

whose polisht stile* reflects the sun 
whilst your dull steel each glimmer smothers. 

THALlA. 

Aganophrosyne* is daft * Kindliness, 

in not excluding from your draft 
that stuff about my friends your craft 
would fret with Epileptor'sf shaft; f The Censurer, 

then let GethosyneJ engraft + Delight. 

ideas which the winds might waft 
oer Lethe on a smuggling raft 
where charonades might rake 'm fore and aft. 

REVIEWER. 

Do you think your bag excuses ? Thou man of 

Bag of Khymes ! which thus abuses nought ! what 

in the stile of one who boozes doeft thou 

evry poet who amuses here, Unfitly 

folk with fiction as he chooses? furnifht with 

buyer who his book peruses ? thy bag and 

O that this head were Medusa's ! bookes ! Spenfer^ 

or your robe were made like Creusa's. bk. 3, c 10, 24. 



54 



FLIGHT OF THE FISHES. 



AUTHOR. 

By such lays no poet loses 
since no one himself accuses. 

If I scolf, each muse confuses, 
grants me no fish during cruises, 
tempts with oafish lures and ruses, 
tantalising him who uses 
unrequited rhyme, that oozes 
uninvited by the muses. 



Author 
oiFers a 
valid a- 

pology for 
blaming 

the r)oets. 



EVPHROSYNE. 

Vesperian litrature ! an arid tract 

where truth and virtue yield to narrow tact, 

where men with children get the mind distract* * he's much 

to leave them green-backt infamy. In fact, diftradt. 

here Adikiaf has each law infract Shakefpeare^ 

but that of gain; and here, with lucre backt. Twelve 

they buy up hacks with reputations crackt, Night. 

and try upon the public mind to act. f Injustice. 



MAQAZINIST. 

Like chiffoniers we chuse to root in mire 
for pelf, and jeer the muse for Plutus' fire ; 
and should the weakly cutter sneak a lyre, 
the god* will meekly mutter — ' Seek a liar — 
' get brazen pens (and faces) — call me sire, 
' let Phoebus' friends (the graces) all retire 
' an' Chance supply the place with witches dire 
' to dance around my mace in giddy gyre.' 



* Mercury, 

god of 

thieves. 



PUBLISHER. 

My friends arouse ye ! may yr aim be higher 
than that of drowsy knaves ashamed of hire ; 
be not too proud for grubstreet fame to spire 
when thus the crowd seeks this* well-named attire. * Litter.. 
My Nerva's fowl — a thief— a lamergeir — in yellow 

and not an owl, in brief, a tamer flier ; covers, 

then get not dearer shams to please — or raise his ire, 
but let yr cheaper flams appease a gracious buyer. 



FLIGHT OF THE FISHES. 55 

MINERVA. 
As when a jocky, caring not a jot 
for aught but gold, and horses free to trot — 
a showy (damaged) nag has cheaply got, 
with skilful craft he hides the cheating spot, 
and sells too well, a beast not worth a shot — 
in which he imitates a specious lot 
who with approv'd (but spurious) paper plot, 
or literary frauds on paper blot ; 

who form a venal band, defraud the state, 
and with the funds in hand, of morals prate — 
or constitute a legislative tribe 
who make the laws, yet itch to take a bribe ; 
the bony talons twitch at touch of gold 
nor scarce forbear to clutch till all is told ; 
the coins as dropt excite the nervous grasp, 
unclutcht that they may chink, in life's last gasp, 

when Death's chill fingers crawl the neck around, 
and throat and gold co-rattle in one sound. 
As when a minstrel girl is seen 

disporting with a tambourine, 

she moves her thumb in vibrant glide 

and gives a shudder to its hide, 

which makes its jarring discs of tin 

increase the stridulating din. 

The carcas* stretcht, the frigid knuckles sink * carkafTe. 

upon the planks, and cause the gold to clink. Shak. 

As when an infant put to sleep carkas, carcas 

is sinking in a slumber deep, Spenfer. 

the rattle which its wants demand karkeis 

has ceast to sound within its hand, Wiclif. 

the jingling brass in rigid bone 

now falls, and yields its wonted tone. 



56 



FLIGHT OF THE FISHES. 



The cowbo}' now no more is found 
to search intently where the ground 
thrown up by worms in pellets round 
thus simulates a tiny mound ; — 

Now therefore is Lumbriciis* wound * Loombreecoos, 

no more the fatal hook around the fishing-worm, 

nor for an eelbob strung and bound ; 
naught else he fears, and he is safe n sound. 

There erst the lad for worms would dibble * . . . the 

or list the brooks prosaic babble trench- 
when baiting hooks for fishes nibble er fury 

or thoughtlessly in water dabble of a 

unless arousd by Halcyon's treble, rhyming 

or noise of literary rabble para- 

when wine-bought wit* begins to dribble site. 

oer throats relaxt for drink and gabble. Milton. 

The schoolboy oft in days gone by 
would cast a restless anxious eye 
around the over-clouded sky 
that signs of rain he there might spy. 
How often would he deeply sigh 
for rain enough to keep him shy 
of school, that he might safely hie 
a fishing, when he need not keep so dry. 



Once he fisht in 


ev-er-y 


streamlet 


once in ev-er-y 


river 


fisht he, 


Kipping up each 


overtaskt 


seamlet 


which at eventide 


neatly 


stitcht he, 


Catching of the 


chub or the 


bream let 


taking fishes that 


later 


disht he, 


Thus to place his 


name in a 


reamlet 


of some littery 


paper 


wisht he. 



Y]W 



